Local nurse-training programs get a dose of encouragement

With the ongoing statewide and national nursing shortage still a major concern, many Bay Area efforts are under way to boost nurse-training programs, encourage more candidates to enter the profession and keep existing nurses current with rapidly changing technological resources.

A few recent examples:

The California Nurses Foundation, a nonprofit philanthropic arm of the California Nurses Association, earlier this month was awarded a second major grant by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, this one for nearly $2 million, to enhance its nurse retention and training efforts. The foundation has won three grants totaling nearly $3.5 million in the last two years, the first a $904,000 award from the California Endowment, the latter two from the Moore foundation, including an earlier $574,000 grant.

The latest grant funds the Nurse-to-Nurse project, which focuses on creating new national models for expanding the nurse work force, and increasing retention rates for hospital-based nurses in San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda and Marin counties. Bay Area hospitals participating in the California Endowment and Moore foundation projects with CNF include Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City, which is part of San Francisco's Catholic Healthcare West hospital system; Kaiser Permanente's Hayward medical center, and two facilities in San Jose, O'Connor Hospital and Good Samaritan Hospital.

Deborah Burger, CNA's president, said high turnover and lack of long-term job retention among new RNs are overlooked factors in the nursing shortage. "Pairing up our experienced veteran RNs with new nurses ... has already been shown to decrease attrition rates," she said.

Sequoia was one of the first hospitals selected for the Moore foundation's Nurse-to-Nurse project, according to hospital spokeswoman Joanie Cavanaugh. Its $1.9 million, two-year grant funds a mentor-education program and related efforts.

San Rafael's Dominican University of California is using its $1 million Moore grant to support its Master of Science in Nursing program, which trains students to become nurse educators with a specialty in geriatric nursing. Students get access to "forgivable loans" of up to $10,000 if they work for three to five semesters in a clinical setting in the five-county Bay Area after they graduate. "Dominican's graduates will fill two critical roles," those of nursing instructor and geriatric specialist, said Barbara Ganley, MSN program director and assistant professor at the university's department of nursing.

The San Francisco Department of Public Health nursing staff has won funding totaling $500,000 to train nurses to operate electronic health records. Included in the total are grants from the Blue Shield of California Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, Walter and Elise Haas Fund and the State of California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office.

Hither & Yon

The Alta Bates Summit Foundation says it's more than halfway to the $25 million goal for its Centennial Campaign for Excellence to benefit Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, with campuses in Berkeley and Oakland. The campaign has raised $15 million privately, and now seeks to raise the rest in a second, "public phase."

Kaiser Permanente at mid-month broke ground on its latest Bay Area hospital project, a 600,000-square-foot complex in Vacaville scheduled for completion in 2009. The complex will include a 340,000-square-foot, 150-bed hospital; a 217,000-square-foot medical office building with offices for up to 60 specialty physicians; and expanded pharmacy and lab services. The complex will add 1,000 jobs to the 450 at an existing 168,000-square-foot outpatient center/medical office building there.

Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco has won a three-year reverification of its Bothin Burn Center from the American Burn Association/American College of Surgeons. Officials said there are approximately 140 burn centers nationally, but only 40 are verified. Verification means a center can treat any patient, adult or pediatric, for any burn, according to officials at Saint Francis.